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Comment by euyyn | Hacker News Reader

How are the Caribbean islands not American?

They are not connected to continents.

True, but they're definitely in the same realm if you will. Just like Great Britain is part of Europe, and New Zealand is part of Australia. (Continentally-speaking!! Don't flame me, Kiwis).

Madagascar is Africa, Japan is Asia. I don't know what to categorize Iceland as, though.

  > New Zealand is part of Australia. (Continentally-
  > speaking!! Don't flame me, Kiwis)

I'm not a kiwi, but NZ is on a subduction zone so can't be part of an existing continent. PNG is probably more what you were thinking of re: AU.

You're right. I was thinking of Papua New Guinea. I seem to always imagine NZ as being much closer to AU than it really is. Thanks.

> I don't know what to categorize Iceland as, though.

The plate boundary of American and Eurasian continents -- Mid Atlantic Ridge -- runs through Iceland.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_Ridge

A tourism advertisement: http://www.visitreykjanes.is/en/moya/toy/index/place/bridge-...

(Haven't been there but I've been thinking that one day I should.)

Madagascar should be related to India, though. Separated 80mil years ago, if I remember correctly.

All continents have shifted in that timescale. Perhaps more relevant is the connection to Austronesia: the first human settlers arrived in Madagascar about 2000-2500 years ago on outrigger canoes from Borneo. Bantu people came later, around 1000 AD, so they are "colonists" somewhat in the same way as Europeans are in America, although they mixed with rather than replaced the Austronesian "first nations".

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